Monday, July 6, 2009

Monday Spotlight: Donna Michaels

Hello everyone! I hope you’re having a great summer. I’d like to thank LASR for spotlighting me this week and for giving me the opportunity to win the week in the first place. I don’t win many contests so imagine my surprise when Marianne and Judy emailed to inform me I had won.

Yep. That’s me being surprised. lol

For those of you who don’t know me, I live in northeastern Pennsylvania with my military husband of 23 years, and our four children: 20 year old, Nick; 16 year old twins, Kyle and Zach; and my 13 year old daughter, Jestina, who prefers to be called just Jes. Somehow, between being a very busy mom and wife I managed to become a multi-published author. ROFL. I know, it’s a miracle, but I have 13 books with The Wild Rose Press, one of them being a free read, and I had 3 books with the now folded Forbidden Publications.

If you’d like to sample my work, please feel free to pop on over to the FREE READS page on my website. http://www.donnamichaelsauthor.com/FreeReadsPage.htm

Thankfully, Whimsical Publications has agreed to look at my revamped (pun intended) romantic comedy paranormal vampire secret agent book, DR. GNOME, that I had with Forbidden. Phew! That was a mouthful. I’ve added over 17,000 words, which includes a new ending. The title will most likely change, too. What’s cool, is if WP offers a contract, DR. GNOME (or whatever the title may be) will be available in both e-book and print. Something Forbidden couldn’t offer.

Having been around a bit and done several book signings and fairs, I’ve found it’s important to have both types of publications.

Print Publication is obviously important if you want to do book fairs and signings to meet the readers and fellow authors, librarians, reviewers, booksellers…etc. I belong to the East Coast Authors Group and every one of us are e-pubbed and in print. We’ve seen a big plus in getting out to festivals and book stores but, unfortunately, you need the printed book for those. I’ve toted a few CD’s with a couple of my e-books on them, but they never sold. Only the print books. Still…that doesn’t mean that someone who took a few pieces of my promo with them didn’t later go home and buy one of my e-books online. On the contrary, I’ve made several sales this way, and hopefully, those readers will be repeat customers now that they’ve sampled my work.

Electronic Publication is equally important because it is the future of publication and here to stay. So many people prefer to read books electronically, whenever and wherever they want. The price, the convenience, and now, the availability are big in that decision. And as a writer, I love that e-publishers take short stories, which is something most print publishers don’t—unless it’s an anthology of shorts from their already established authors. As a reader, I love that I can download a story and read it over lunch, and if it’s a full novel, I can read it on the go, in the dentist waiting room, the school parking lot…etc.

What are your thoughts on e-publication and print? If you’re an author, do you see the benefits? Any disadvantages? How about as a reader?

7 comments:

Hi Donna, great to see you here and congratulations ony our spotlight. I love the fact that your daughters name is so similar to the heroine of my own first release 'Starquest' and the shortened version is the same apart from only having one 's' in it. (I'm purposely beng vague because of the contest!) LOL

I agree it's a good thing to have books available in both electroic and print format. I love to see my own books on my bookshelf and there's nthing quite like curling up with a 'real' book, but as you say, E-books are economical and handy, so it's great to be published in both formats.

Hi, Donna! I have to admit, I love to read books in print. But maybe if I could afford one of those e-readers... hmmm. Well, maybe someday. But I like the option of having my own books available in both formats, because I think that's the way the future of book publishing is going.

Congratulations on the spotlight, Donna, and the 13 books! I seem to feel the same as everyone else, print for me as well as e-book. I do book signings and people in central Ohio just seem to want that book in their hand. I can't afford a reader and by the time I'd finish reading a book the batteries would be dead anyway. I'm a fast reader, it's just that I'm usually editing a book chapter or adding new words while waiting for my son to shop, and he's fast so I may get to read a few pages here and there. Took me 5 months to finish a book once. Too many books to write! Sandy

I love having both types of books available as a reader. I love holding that print book (and getting it autographed). I'm also researching ereaders since I will be buying one very soon (within weeks). Once I have that ereader I may start prefering ebooks.